Refereeing controversy emerges minutes before Rangers/Panthers game 5

The New York Rangers and Florida Panthers are set for game five tonight, but unfortunately the referees are already a talking point for the game.

Ahead of the critical contest in the Eastern Conference Final, the league announced that referees Steve Kozari and Dan O'Rourke will be working the game. Both are veteran officials with plenty of experience in both the regular season and the playoffs.

However, experience is not everything in the world of officiating. Both Kozari and O'Rourke are officials that many fans are familiar with by name. Typically, that is not a good thing in professional sports. Ever heard of Angel Hernandez? Notably, The Panthers are 9-0-1 in their last 10 regular season games with O'Rourke and are 2-0 in their last two playoff games. Similarly, the Rangers are 0-2 when referee number 9 is on the ice in their games these playoffs.

One fan believes the NHL is intentionally putting O'Rourke in when the league wants the Panthers to win. That being said, this is just one fan's opinion and just one crazt theory.

However, if the Panthers win tonight many fans will certainly raise an eyebrow, especially if there is some kind of controversy in the game related to the officials. That has become all too common in the playoffs this year, especially with goaltender interference calls. Hopefully for the sake of the sport, we get a good, clean game.

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